1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel filter apparatus having a means for releasing static electricity to outside, that is, the fuel filter apparatus with an anti-electrostatic function.
2. Description of Related Art
A fuel system for vehicles is provided with a fuel filter apparatus for filtering the fuel to be supplied from a fuel pump to fuel injectors. The fuel filter apparatus has generally a filter housing made of design in which a filter element is contained. When the fuel passes through the filter element, static electricity is likely to be generated and taken on the resin filter housing. Therefore, if the static electricity discharges from the filter housing to adjacent metal components, the filter housing may be cracked due to a discharge impact of the static electricity.
To cope with this problem, it has been proposed to prevent the electrostatic discharge in a manner that an earth wire is connected to the outside of the filter housing made of conductive resin to release the static electricity.
However, conductive design is more expensive, compared with non-conductive design. Further, if the earth wire comes off the filter housing due to some reasons or its connection to the filter housing is forgotten, the static electricity is likely to be discharged from the filter housing because the entire filter housing is made of conductive resin. Therefore, a problem that the filter housing may be cracked still exists.